Dead Wild Western

isucamper

Permanently Banned
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Jan 28, 2010
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Marion, Iowa
I could use some help with my Wild Western. It is totally dead, with nothing coming up on the screen and no sounds. I've replaced the power supply with a new switching power supply from arcade shop (the original was dead) and verified that the monitor shows a picture. Araknoid looks great by the way with Wild Western train tracks running through it.

IMG_2353.jpg


Gonna replace that monitor as soon as I get this thing running.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the board is dead. I've verified that when powered it's got 5 volts going through the chips, but I still get absolutely nothing on the monitor or through the speakers.

I took the board out yesterday to clean and inspect it. First thing I noticed is that many of the chip legs were very very corroded. I did what I could to clean them up with a toothbrush and water. See before and after:

IMG_2359.jpg


IMG_2361.jpg


Otherwise, the board looks like it hasn't been touched in 30 years. I see no signs of abuse. There are no scratched traces or bad soldier joints. The only other issue I see is possibly this chip:

IMG_2367.jpg


IMG_2369.jpg


Does this look toasted? How would I go about debugging/fixing it?
 
That chip is a sound amp and it runs hot, that is why you see the discoloration.


The first thing you should do is carefully pull each cable and then replug it fully. Then do the same thing with the socketed chips. Since the non-socketed chips were rusty it is possible that some of the socketed ones are as well. If the rust is inside the socket it could prevent the chip from working properly.
 
is that rust, though? i've seen that on boards from time to time and it's more like dust and dirt collecting on the legs. i don't think rust would come off with a toothbrush and water.
 
Not sure what it is... probably rust, and the pins didn't come completely clean as you can see from the before/after pics. They did clean up a bit though. Even the rustiest chips seem to be getting 5 volts.

I did some more voltage testing on the chips and I did find a bunch of chips on the top board (the "game board") that aren't getting 5 volts. IC32 is only getting .8 volts and there is a block of 4 chips (IC20, IC10, IC21, and IC11) that are only getting 4.33 volts. Not sure how to test the rest of the chips on the other boards since they are underneath, but there are probably others that are low. Coincidentally, the bad chips I've identified don't have any rust on them, and I didn't notice any bad solder joints when I had the boards on the table. What would cause these chips to be low power?
 
So I've been doing a bit more research, and I hear that the filter board in these cabinets is often a culprit. Maybe my PCB is fine?

Wild Western is the same style of cabinet as Elevator Action and Frontline. Anyone know much about these filterboards that sit above the PCB? Is there a way to test it and see if it's working? I'm going to pull it off tonight and have a look at the back.

Also, is there anyone in the central Iowa area with a working Frontline/WW/EA cabinet? I'd love to test this board in a working cabinet so I can rule it out or not. If it's working, it's only a matter of time before I brake it by handling it or pulling off the ROMs. I have a zookeeper but the wiring looks way different. There is no filter board in there and there's a bunch more plugs.
 
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